Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c6.s1.30

c6.s1.30

The evidence of the Chinese translations¹ as well as of the fragments in Sanskrit and various languages used in Central Asia,² which have been recently discovered, shows the existence of a series of texts, the *Dīrghāgama*, the *Madhyamāgama*, the *Saṃyuktāgama*, the *Ekottarāgama*, parallel with the four Pali Nikāyas, and of several texts, *Sthaviragāthā*, *Udāna*, *Dhammapada*, *Sūtranipāta*, *Vimānavastu*, *Buddhavaṃça*, which are found in the fifth Pali Nikāya. There is also conclusive evidence of strong similarity in the *Prātimokṣa* rules of the Vinaya, and we are justified in seeing the growth of a common tradition in India in the period immediately succeeding Asoka, which is preserved in varying purity in our texts.³